Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is planning to expand his cement company to three South America countries and has already signed a preliminary joint-venture agreement with one company, Dangote Group Executive Director Devakumar Edwin told Business Day.

The company is also looking to expand in Asia and has signed limestone mining rights in Indonesia and Nepal, Edwin said.

Dangote Cement Plc, Africa’s biggest producer of the building material and Nigeria’s largest company, three plants in Nigeria and plans to expand in 13 other African countries, bringing total capacity to more than 50 million tons by 2016. It has a market capitalization of $23.8 billion.

“The countries we’re looking at have huge natural resources and growth,” Edwin, who is also the chief executive officer of the cement business, said.

He declined to name the nations so as not to alert competitors. “There are many large players in that region (that) may easily try to shut down entry to new players, but there’s still large scope of doing business,” said Edwin,

Dangote will delay a planned listing of its cement company’s shares on the London Stock Exchange until at least next year when plants in countries including Cameroon, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia are commissioned, Edwin said.

Dangote Cement’s shares have declined 2.2 percent this year to N225.02 (Jan 20) in Lagos. The stock advanced 71 percent last year, outpacing the 47 percent gain of the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index.